Ohio's Hospice and Ascend Innovations Announce New Strategic Partnership

DAYTON, Ohio, Dec. 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Ohio's Hospice and Ascend Innovations are proud to announce a strategic partnership designed to produce data-driven technologies at the forefront of digital transformation within hospice and palliative care services. This partnership combines the technical capabilities of Ascend with the clinical, business and domain expertise of Ohio's Hospice to create scalable products in Dayton that improve community health and the delivery of healthcare services.

With expertise in data science, software engineering and design, Ascend is well-positioned to support Ohio's Hospice in its most pressing technology and product initiatives.

"Our partnership with Ascend is an integral part of our long-term technology goals," says Kent Anderson, CEO of Ohio's Hospice. "More importantly, building technology right here in Dayton by working with local companies and organizations is important to our organization. We are committed to working together to benefit the community we are privileged to serve and, when possible, provide opportunities for us to share these technologies commercially."

In late 2019, Ohio's Hospice announced the formation of the National Hospice Cooperative to provide business support services to like-minded, community-based, not-for-profit hospice organizations around the United States. National Hospice Cooperative provides participant hospices with shared mission services and access that both broaden their purchasing power and also reduce their administrative and indirect expenses, enabling those organizations to dedicate more dollars to direct patient care activities. Through National Hospice Cooperative, Ohio's Hospice and Ascend have new pathways to provide products and services to affiliate and participant hospices that otherwise would not have the capability or capacity to focus on new technologies.

In addition, Ohio's Hospice launched its new, state-of-the-art Pure Healthcare® model of care earlier this year. Pure Healthcare is designed to combine functions of care management, rehabilitation and social services while addressing complex medical conditions, multiple chronic illnesses and quality-of-life issues. The next phase for Pure Healthcare includes development of pilot programs that involve new models of care supported by improved integration, advanced analytics, better provider continuity through communication, and advanced health technologies.

"I've been saying it throughout 2020 - local strategic partnerships are core to our mission and vision as a life science product company," says Marty Larson, president & CEO of Ascend. "Ohio's Hospice is technology driven and community centric, both of which align with where Ascend is positioning itself to truly make an impact by developing new products. We're looking for partners that create natural commercialization pathways, and Ohio's Hospice has done a fantastic job of creating the foundation for interoperability in the field with National Hospice Cooperative and the launch of Pure Healthcare."

Ascend and Ohio's Hospice have been working together throughout 2020 on several initiatives including advanced analytics, machine learning, and robotic process automation concepts. The collective teams are establishing a 2021 roadmap to make significant headway in developing technology in these focus areas geared toward hospice and palliative care providers.

"We started with a few focused projects and now have expanded our work to include larger initiatives," says Kerry Hamilton, chief strategy officer of Ohio's Hospice. "We're excited about the prospective opportunities to collaborate even more in 2021."

Both organizations are adding new staff members to their respective teams to bolster business intelligence, data science, and digital capabilities to prepare for the upcoming year.

"A strategic partnership with Ohio's Hospice is huge for Ascend. Adding this to the inherent relationships with Premier, Kettering, and Dayton Children's as part of our ownership structure really helps solidify the framework we need to identify, build, and scale viable products," says Josh Gratsch, chief operating officer at Ascend. "We've attracted and grown our team under the premise that we build exciting new technologies that make an impact on lives. I can't think of a better organization to partner with that embodies that vision."

Media Contact: 

Craig Schrolucke, Sr. Director Mission Engagement and Communication

[email protected]

937.781.1319

About Ohio's Hospice: Ohio's Hospice is a partnership of mission-driven, not-for-profit hospices in Ohio committed to a shared vision of strengthening and preserving community-based hospices. Members of Ohio's Hospice share the values of:

• Serving each patient in an atmosphere of hospitality, respect and caring
• Attending to the social, physical and spiritual needs of each person we are privileged to serve
• Preserving and enhancing patient dignity
• Celebrating the life of each individual we serve
• Reducing unnecessary suffering in the communities we serve

About Ascend Innovations: Ascend is a life science company focused on developing technology that solves unmet needs in health and human performance. Ascend is owned by three major hospital networks in the Dayton area: Premier Health, Kettering Health Network, and Dayton Children's through the Greater Dayton Area Hospital Association (GDAHA). Ascend's multi-disciplinary team combines the insights of data science with the intuition of design thinking to produce transformative solutions for the healthcare industry, local communities, and commercial clients.

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SOURCE Ohio's Hospice